Pain management post open heart surgery?
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A very close relative had open heart surgery for an aortic valve replacement 2 days ago. She is 84 years old. She was extubated late the same day, and is now in the cardiac step down unit @ her...
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l was so glad that l was able to read other stories very similar to our own recent experiences ongoing....our dad has just had a double bypass ,and the nursing care etc. has been outstanding,which is not said very often now a days due to many many reasons... the only worry l have is the misunderstanding of the powers of paracetmol !!!! after 5 1/2 hours in surgery, ICU was fab, HDU was fab but then less than 24hrs later paracetmol appears again to take charge.after 24yrs in the nhs, even l know that pain management is the key to either a successful / poor recovery of the patient. so why does it keep getting over looked? during the last 10 days,and talking to others of a simaular position,it really is a key problem. most of the patients who have had poor pain management "appear "to develop chest infections within 72.hrs of surgery. l know there is always this risk but,if a patient is not able to do his/her breathing excerises,mobilize as soon as possible then they are not able to help inflate their lungs,or mobilize gradually,again to ward off all those post op nasties as successfully as they could do in order to promote well-being and discharge home as soon as able. l know the flip side of this is pain masking, dependancy and other pain medication related problems,but surely there must be some common ground that could be aimed for together helping the patient "get better"as we hoped? A lot of the children's services seem to have got there heads around this paracetmol
myth,so why can't the adult services do the same? has anyone got any stats. re;this matter as l'd love to read/study them?
many thanks for the other letters,support comes in many varieties.....